Medal of Honor Awarded to Army Captain Who Tackled Bomber in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday to a soldier who rushed a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2012 and saved perhaps dozens of American and Afghan lives at a devastating cost to his own.

The soldier, Capt. Florent A. Groberg, has spent much of the last three years recovering from 33 surgeries, but he stood at attention in the East Room of the White House as the commander in chief bestowed on him the highest commendation available to members of the American military.

“On his very worst day, he managed to summon his very best,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s the nature of courage — not being unafraid but confronting fear and danger and performing in a selfless fashion. He showed his guts, he showed his training, how he would put it all on the line for his teammates. That’s an American we can all be grateful for.”

Captain Groberg, 32, who goes by Flo and retired from the Army this year to serve as a civilian in the Defense Department, was only the 10th living recipient of the Medal of Honor from actions during the war in Afghanistan. The ceremony came the day after Veterans Day as Mr. Obama sought to demonstrate concern for those who served even as he tries to wind down the war in Afghanistan.

Captain Groberg was born in France but moved to the United States with his parents as a boy and grew up in Bethesda, Md., just outside the nation’s capital. He was naturalized as an American citizen in 2001 just months before graduating from high school and went on to become a track and cross-country star at the University of Maryland.

He enlisted in the Army in 2008 and served two tours in Afghanistan, the second as the head of a personal security detachment in the Fourth Infantry Division. On Aug. 8, 2012, he was escorting commanders on foot to a weekly security meeting at the provincial governor’s office in Asadabad, the capital of Kunar Province. - Read More at nytimes

Medal of Honor Awarded to Army Captain Who Tackled Bomber in Afghanistan

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